In a move suggesting worsening confidence in the US consumer, global bank behemoth HSBC is expected to further pull back on lending to debt-laden Americans.

HSBC, which already ceased originating new auto loans in the US, is also planning to shutter its personal-loan business here, according to WSJ.com, citing people familiar with the situation.

The move is not expected to affect its consumer credit-card business.

HSBC’s move only adds to already heavy pressure on US banks to jumpstart the economy by increasing lending to consumers. And it marks a sharp about-face from the bank’s recent moves to dig deeper in the nation’s lending market.

In 2003, HSBC spent $14 billion to buy Household International, a US subprime-mortgage lender that only burdened the banking giant with toxic assets as the housing bubble burst.

The bank is also expected to seek to raise as much as $17 billion through a share sale to boost its balance sheet as a result of lost earnings on the US loan market.

The bank, Europe’s biggest by market value, has been hit with $42.3 billion in bad loans in recent years, primarily as a result of its exposure to the US market.

HSBC is one of the few banks that hasn’t received government rescue money, unlike Royal Bank of Scotland, which is practically a government-owned entity.

HSBC also is working to raise as much as $17 billion in a rights offering to offset its US losses, according Bloomberg News, citing people with knowledge of the situation.

Richard Lindsay, a London-based spokesman for the bank, declined to comment on the capital-raising plans.

Financial institutions in Europe, led by UBS and RBS, have been forced to raise more than $355 billion because of credit-market losses and investment writedowns.